Notre Dame attacker a self-radicalised novice: prosecutor

An Algerian man who attacked a policeman with a hammer outside Notre Dame cathedral was a loner with a deep interest in Islamic State jihadist propaganda, the Paris prosecutor said Saturday. Farid Ikken, a 40-year-old doctorate student, was shot and wounded by another policeman during Tuesday’s attack in which he shouted: “This is for Syria”. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Ikken was an educated man who under questioning told investigators he had radicalised himself over a period of 10 months.